PhD of Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management

Program Overview

The PhD of Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management (PhD-AECM) Program is jointly offered by the School of Architecture and the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

The PhD-AECM degree program is intended for practitioners, researchers, and educators in engineering, architecture, construction management fields, and other professionals in the building industry who wish to be pioneers and advanced leaders in management technologies and their application to the built environment. The nominal length of the program is five years. Advanced standing during the admissions process can alter the expected time period.

Curriculum

The first two years are intended for the tooling up of candidates to undertake research in an academic setting and their intended areas of research, by taking classes, participating in research projects, selecting their advisory committee members, completing their “game plan,” and taking the qualifier exam. This exam is administered by the candidate’s advisory committee and has two parts: written and oral. The courses candidates take are tailored to their direction of research and background knowledge, as determined through conversations with their principal advisor. For a checklist of subjects to be covered, see the PhD-AECM curriculum. For additional and up-to-date information on these and other course offerings (course descriptions, schedules, instructors, etc.) please visit the University’s Schedule of Classes (SOC) webpage.

The third year of the PhD program is devoted to the development of the PhD dissertation proposal based on the work completed in the first two years. In the fourth year, the proposal is publicly defended and the work on the dissertation commences. In the fifth year, the dissertation work is completed and publicly defended. Approvals of these milestones are judged by the candidate’s advisory committee and approved by the SoA Graduate Committee.

For details and regulations about the Game Plan, Qualification, Proposal, and Dissertation processes, as well as additional details and regulations, please see the most recent version of the Graduate Student Handbook, available in the Graduate Student Resources section of this website's footer below.

The PhD-AECM curriculum is customized based on the experience and needs of individual students. Please contact Erica Cochran Hameen, the program track chair, with questions about the PhD curriculum.

Faculty

The Architecture–Engineering–Construction Management faculty is comprised of experienced educators from the School of Architecture, the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and the Heinz College of Public Policy & Management. This interdisciplinary faculty provides a strong foundation for gaining both breadth and depth of knowledge in this multifaceted program.